An undated photo from the personal collection of Alice Virginia Benzie, a Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service -- WAVES -- sailor stationed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in the 1940s, shows WAVES standing in formation outside the hangars. By the time recruiting ended in 1945, the WAVES boasted a force of 86,000 enlisted and more than 8,000 female officers -- around 2.5 percent of the Navy’s total strength at the time. Courtesy photo